BAGUIO CITY – The city council last Monday approved a resolution asking clarification from the Land Transportation Franchising Regulatory Board (LTFRB) if the jeepney fare discount granted to students applies even on Saturdays when most students still have classes.

Councilor Elmer Datuin who authored the resolution noted that jeepney associations do not give fare discounts to students during Saturdays apparently on belief that Saturday is not considered a school day.

“It has been observed and reported that there are so many jeepneys posted with their own unofficial notices such as ‘student discount except Saturday and Sunday,’ inspite of the fact that the official LTFRB/DOTC fare matrix certification posted inside jeepneys merely states ‘school days’ only without particular mention of exceptions,” he said.

“It is a common knowledge that school days for college students is from Monday to Saturday. It is likewise a fact that on certain Saturdays, elementary and high school students have classes for make-up purposes of lost regular school day/s or for some other academic or school-related purposes,” he noted.

He said the essence of the discount policy is to ease the financial burden of parents and students in transportation expenses in going to and from the school but this is defeated if the policy is interpreted in a different way.

“The spirit and intention of such discount policy is premised on the term ‘school days’ regardless of which day such school days may be and not ‘week days,” he said.

“To avoid different interpretations on the term ‘school days’ and to prevent arguments between jeepney drivers and students that may lead to untoward incidents, there is a need for the LTFRB/DOTC-CAR to issue a clarification on the matter,” he said. – A Refuerzo